Senate Democrats Take on the Environment

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, January 15, 2003

Senate Democrats and environmental groups said Thursday that the Bush administration has accelerated attacks on environmental protections since Republican victories in the November elections.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and five colleagues used the approach of Bush's State of the Union speech, scheduled for Jan. 28, to criticize what they said was the White House's sustained attack on environmental laws and regulations.

"The state of our union is getting weaker and weaker, dirtier and dirtier," Clinton said.

The administration's critics said the White House was both emboldened by Republican electoral gains and using the cover of Fridays and holiday eves_when public and media attention are typically lowest_to announce anti-environmental decisions.

Clinton urged Bush to use his speech to withdraw new rules issued on New Year's Eve to make it easier for industrial plants and refineries to modernize without having to buy expensive pollution controls. Nine states have sued the administration, arguing that the changes will make the air dirtier and undermine their efforts to protect public health.

The White House did not immediately provide comment, but the administration has called the new approach badly needed to remove barriers to innovation and increased productivity.

Similarly, the Democrats said, Bush has rolled back limits on logging and weakened federal protections for waterways.

Clinton said Democrats believe they have the votes to maintain the ban on drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Senate Republicans who favor drilling are considering using a legislative procedure that would prevent Democrats from blocking their move with fewer than 50 votes.

Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters, said Thursday's event was the start of an effort to insure that environmental issues play a larger role in the 2004 elections than they did in November, when, she suggested, Republicans were able to blur differences with Democrats.

Officials from the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council also were at the news conference.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who faces re-election in 2004, said Bush's "assault on the environment is unlike anything I've ever seen." Boxer aides unfurled a 32-foot long scroll that they said catalogued 235 anti-environmental actions taken by the administration.